Veterans know the benefits of conserving fuel

The stack of mail that awaited me after a trek last week to three favorite national wildlife refuges on the Delmarva Peninsula included a slick and glossy brochure from an incumbent state legislator. The text, headlined with bold lettering, proclaimed the fellow's support for veterans' benefits and the like.

As if such benefits are being debated, at all.

They aren't.

Nor should they be. I write as a retired Air Force officer whose career in uniform encompassed 26 years of service, seven years of which were spent in Strategic Air Command, a central player in the Cold War. My wife, too, who just passed on after three decades of marriage, was also a veteran, having served in the former West Berlin and at the National Security Agency in Maryland.

No, veterans' benefits are not on the debate table. But America's continuing - and growing - dependence on foreign sources of oil surely is. And American men and women in uniform are on the frontlines of the ongoing campaign to protect oil fields, most notably in the Middle East. (I won't identify the name of the politician whose mailer I mention above, but you can figure it out easy enough).

Political leaders - at all levels of government - who really, really, really want to deal with a real issue at the heart of national security would start hammering away at reducing our insatiable demand for fossil fuels, like Middle East petroleum.

How to do that? For starters, switching over to cars that can go 60 miles per gallon would dramatically enhance America's national security by reducing our dependence on oil and combating climate change. That's the message from national security leaders with Operation Free, a group of veterans advocating clean energy policies.

"The Obama administration set the country on a path to higher fuel efficiency in automobiles and lower consumption of oil. By increasing fuel efficiency, we will reduce our reliance on oil and thus enhance our national security," said Jonathan Murray of Operation Free, which has called for a standard of 60 mpg by 2025. "Today's announcement is welcome news among America's military families that are on the front lines of defending American security."

The Obama Administration has signaled that it is looking to raise fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks to at least 47 miles per gallon and up to 62 miles per gallon by 2025. The new standards would apply to cars and light trucks in model years 2017-2025. Increasing fuel efficiency to 60 mpg would result in at-pump cost savings to consumers of more than $100 billion and cut oil consumption by 44 billion gallons in 2030, according to a recent study.

"Our current energy policy sends a billion dollars a day overseas for oil and some of it ends up in the hands of terrorists and regimes hostile to the United States. The existing policy puts our soldiers at risk as they face our enemies on the battlefield. Setting higher fuel efficiency standards will reduce the need for oil and the associated security risks. The administration's proposal complements the Department of Defense efforts to find new sources of clean energy to power our ships, planes and tanks and reduce our dependence on oil," said Murray.

Operation Free is a coalition of veterans and national security organizations dedicated to securing America with clean energy. Operation Free sponsors the Veterans for American Power National Tour, a 29-state tour by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans making the connection between energy policy and national security. Learn more at www.OperationFree.net. Operation Free is an advocacy campaign of the Truman National Security Project.

Take a look at Operation Free's fuel scorecard rankings to learn more about national security and petroleum: www.operationfree.net/energy-security-threats/fuel-scorecard-2010/

If you factor in the cost of securing our access to oil, the actual price of gasoline is somewhere near $10 per gallon. Our oil demand drives up prices worldwide, pouring funds into the coffers of foreign regimes that hold anti-American sentiments.

Meanwhile, even if we buy oil from a friendly country like Mexico, problem countries in the Middle East can hold us hostage by forcing up global oil prices - as Middle Eastern countries in OPEC have done time and time again.

My time in uniform included three months at an U.S. operation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, what will the next mail delivery bring from local politicians?

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